What AH Never Told
by Lonely Traveler
Summary: Did you ever wonder what really happened when Richard broke up with his cheating girlfriend, what Matt's first cigarette was like or what was going through Scarlett's mind when she pushed a groundsman into the swimming pool? Read to find out...
1. First Cigarette

**Eh... hi.**

**Well, I've been working on this idea for awhile now.. I've always wondered about the events that Anthony Horowitz mentioned in the book, but never really described in detail. So I figured I'd give it a shot. I'll have one for each of the gatekeepers, Richard (you just can't forget Richard) and maybe some other people. But I'd love to hear your ideas, too. So, here you go. Oh, I'm not from England (US actually), so if I use any words that don't seem English, forgive me.**

**Oh, I own nothing...**

**Thanks**

Chapter One First Cigarette

The first cigarette Matt ever smoked was his last. Not because he was killed the very next moment (that would be unbelievable), but because it hadn't been at all what he was expecting. As a matter of fact, he was surprised at himself for giving into pressure like that. He never had before. But then again, when you hang out with people like Kelvin, you sort of had to do what he said. It had all started near Ipswich Station where he dressed in a hooded sweatshirt, faded jeans and dirty sneakers. The streets were alive but in a way dead. Of course, you had the streets filled with cars and taxis. Pedestrians went about their business, but there was no life to anything. It was boring, monotonous- plain dull.

Matt wasn't really sure why he had come. Maybe it was because his aunt's constant bickering had gotten to him. Or maybe he had just needed a reason to get out of the home that he had come to despise. Luckily, Kelvin had dropped by and offered to go out for a while.

There were four of them in all. The other two were around the same age as Kelvin. One was blonde and the other was had dark haired with a nose ring. For the past half hour, they had been wolf whistling at girls, throwing small pebbles at passing cars and trying to pickpocket some of the people passing by. After awhile they got bored with it. But frankly, Matt's heart hadn't been into it.

"What now?" he said as he watched Kelvin roll an empty beer bottle with his foot. Then Kelvin met his eyes and a faint curiosity passed through them.

"You ever had a cigarette?"

Matt was a little taken aback by the question that he took awhile to answer. "No. Why?"

Kelvin gave him a sly smile. "You're about to now."

For some reason, that made him a bit nervous. He had seen all those commercials about smoking and what it could do to your body. But the air they breathed in probably had enough chemicals to give him cancer. So it couldn't be any different either way. Could it?

They walked over to the deli and Kelvin bought a pack of Marlboro Lights. The clerk eyed them suspiciously but stopped after Kelvin glared at him. They left, laughing for no apparent reason.

" It's a gift but you'll have to pay me back for these eventually." Kelvin said while nudging him in the side. What was the point of calling it a gift if he had to pay for it? But Matt just nodded and took them. He just wanted to get it over. He didn't really have a choice now; kelvin had already paid for the. And it wouldn't hurt.

He pulled one of them out. Like most cigarettes it was a light brown and white and a little over an inch long. He hesitantly took the lighter from one of Kelvin's friends and held the cigarette to his mouth. He was about to light it when Kelvin stopped him.

"You're not supposed to light that end." He said laughing. Matt couldn't help but blush as he switched the ends and lit it.

He inhaled a little and ended up hacking and coughing until his eyes watered. The other three chuckled. He eventually got the hang of it. They told him how to breathe through his nose and what not. By the end of it, he felt a little lightheaded.

"How was it?" Kelvin asked eagerly.

What was he supposed to say? Honestly, he hadn't enjoyed it that much. But Kelvin had paid for it so…

"It was good." He lied and looked at the others. They look satisfied.

"It's getting dark. We ought to leave." Said Kelvin. They went their separate ways, except for Matt and Kelvin since they lived next door to each other. He walked up the stairs only to see Brian pigging out with bag of potato chips while watching soccer (or football. Whatever you want to call it). He turned his head away from the television and glared at him before asking, "Where've you been?"

"Out." Matt replied gritting his teeth in annoyance. To his disappointment, Brian caught sight of the cigarettes in his hand.

"Where'd you get those?" he said gruffly. Matt rolled his eyes.

"A friend bought them for me." he said already eager to leave. He took a few steps back when Brian got out of his seat and went towards him.

"Were you smoking?"

He hesitated before answering. "Maybe."

Brian just blinked. The idiot. " It's your aunt's birthday today, right?"

What kind of follow-up question was that? Matt shrugged his shoulders. After living there for six years, he stopped caring about birthdays, especially his aunt's. Brian shook his head.

"No. She mentioned something about a birthday…Give it to me."

"What?"

"You heard me." Brian replied with bloodshot eyes. "Besides, you're too young. And she isn't expecting a gift from you…"

Matt just sighed. Brian was always pushing him around. Half the time he was too drunk to remember most of the things his aunt told him. But it wasn't like he needed them. Ad things always got ugly when they argued…

"Fine." He said and pushed the packet in his hand. Without another word, he went up the stairs and into the bathroom. He turned on the faucet and gargled his mouth with an entire cup of water. He even used some Listerine- just in case.

*****************************************************************

**Hm.. a little short, but you get the general idea. I hope Matt didn't sound too different from the one you all know and love (:P). I'm not entirely sure which one I'll do next. Maybe the Scott's thoughts as he trapped inside of Silent Creek...or Pedro while he's waching the flodd destroy his home... Feel free to leave any ideas! Thanks!**

**LT**


	2. New Names, New Beginnings

**Just a note: I am SO sorry for not updating. Had to go on a mandatory camping trip for a WEEK! Anyways, I'm back and I've decided to do these stories in order of the books. So Matt's first, Pedro, Jamie and Scott and Scarlett. This one's for Pedro and i hope I've lived up to your expectations. He really is a great character... So without further ado...**

Chapter Two New Names, New Beginnings

The six- year old boy had been sleeping peacefully between his mother and sister when he felt himself being shaken awake roughly. It was around six in the evening and he had just come back from school. All he wanted to do was rest. But apparently that wasn't to be the case.

He gazed up to see a frightened brown face looking back at him. It was his father. He was dressed in a ragged t-shirt and torn shorts and his son wore the same. It wasn't enough to keep either of them warm in the weather in Canta, but it was all they had. Outside they could hear the wind pounding against the sides of their wooden and cardboard house. It sent chills through their bones.

But the rain was worse. It came down in torrents and sounded like bullets against the rooftop. What frightened the young boy the most was the fact that he could barely see _outside_ of the window. It was just a quick moving haze of blue and white, water and wind.

"Get up." His father said to him in Spanish urgently. Without waiting for him to answer, he shook his wife and daughter awake and told them to get out of the house at once. His father's frantic manner scared the boy and he stood, paralyzed in fear. It wasn't until his father saw him and his eyes widened.

"Don't you understand boy?" he said frighteningly. " Get out! Before the whole building falls!"

Without another word, he scrambled out of the doorway, nearly tripping over the rug. When he finally caught sight of what was happening, he gasped.

The River Chillon, the largest in their small village, was churning like a furious wave. The heavy rain made its banks overflow and anything near it was going to be destroyed. The river was on a valley above their village and if it gained enough speed-

Just then, someone shouted out something unrecognizable. It hadn't been his father, but at that moment, the river bursts its banks and came forwards like a roaring beast. It was a mixture of mud and water heading towards Canta at an alarming speed. At that, the boy ran for his life towards some sort of shelter- anything that could keep the flood away from him. All the while, the heavy drops of rain thudded against his back and made him weak. He was cold, miserable and trapped.

He halted to a stop near a large bush while trying to catch his breath. His lungs were rattling in his chest as he trembled from the cold. He would do anything to feel his mother's warmth again.

Suddenly, he felt a pair of strong arms pick him up and he was thrown over the person's shoulder. The boy screeched in protest, but could do nothing about it. The man sprinted towards the oldest tree in their village and climbed it with the boy on his shoulder. He pushed him onto a large branch. For a millisecond, he was able to catch sight of the man's face before he was wrenched form the tree by the powerful floodwaters.

He cried out in fear as he saw the flood uproot everything. Houses. Wells. People.

People.

What had happened to his family? Had they gotten away safely? Had **anyone** escaped?

He gripped the tree more tightly and rested his head against it. His eyes closed, but he could still hear the whistling of the wind and the rush of the water. He felt something hit him in the back of the head with a _THUNK_ and he struggled to hold onto the trunk. In the end he managed to keep out of the waters as weariness took over him and he slowly slipped out of consciousness...

* * *

The next day he awoke to see his home, now an unrecognizable wreck in the Peruvian sun. There were bodies everywhere and as he gingerly scaled down the tree a sense of dread came over him.

He walked around, ignoring the other survivors who were looking for others and hoped nothing had happened to his family.

He didn't get his wish.

He only got a glimpse of them. When he saw the cheap watch on the dead man's arm, he knew it was his father's and he noticed the bracelet his mother always wore. He tried not to look at their faces. He didn't want to. Yet despite the dread and horror around him, he couldn't help but feel hope.

He was going to be okay.

With this newfound encouragement, he looked around for scraps and found a small knapsack to put them in. he saw a group of older villagers grouping together with small sacks of their own. They were going to leave Canta for the capital. He made up his mind that he would go with them. He may've been small and they would try to leave him behind, but they wouldn't get rid of him.

He gathered whatever courage he had left. As they began to walk towards the dirt road, he followed them, sticking to the back.

They arrived in the capital only to be ignored or thrown to the side. Lima already had refugees from other villages. They didn't need anymore. So from there, they went their separate ways and the young boy found a sister and brother who needed a helper.

It wasn't much, but it was a start.

* * *

"What do you mean you didn't find anything?" barked the older man. The boy, now ten years old, tried no to meet his gaze as he tried to find a way out of this one.

"I was in the dumps from six in the morning." He lied quickly. "There was nothing there."

The larger man gave him one last murderous look before finally losing it.

Two hours later, the young boy was on the run again. There was no way in hell he was going back there. He couldn't take t anymore. It would've been better to die than to stay there any longer. It wasn't like they wanted him there anyway...

But he soon noticed he was more likely to get beat up in an open dark road than with his previous owners and he shivered at the thought. He had bruises on his sides and a black right. But it would heal soon. They always had.

He clutched his knapsack and trekked towards what he thought was a bleak light...

* * *

Poison Town certainly lived up to its name. There had been no one in the town that could claim they weren't afflicted with some sort of disease or ailment.

Well, besides him of course.

They called it a miracle. In the first day or so that he had been there, a young girl with a serious fever was cured with no explanation. No one had enough money for medicine, so a miracle was the only thing they could come up with.

But Sebastian had his suspicions.

He would look at the young skinny boy in mild admiration and confusions at times. He was quiet and liked keeping to himself. But there was something about him...

"You!" he said to the boy a week later. Closer up, Sebastian couldn't help but notice a striking resemblance to someone. He couldn't quite remember who it was, but he had been important to Peru. "How would you like to work for me?"

At first the boy frowned. Not too long ago he'd been in the same situation and it hadn't ended well. Did he really want to get into that again?

He looked into the man's eyes to see some form of trickery or cruelty. He found it, of course. But he had been the only person to offer any kind of help. It was this or nothing.

_I don't know what he sees in me, but all right._ He thought tiredly. He nodded his head and the Sebastian gave a harsh laugh and a pat on the back.

"What's your name?" he said roughly. "I can't really go around calling you 'boy'."

He froze at once as he tried to remember his name. He couldn't have forgotten it after four years! But he had barely talked to anyone in that time and his name, his source of identity was forgotten.

"I ... I don't remember." He said quietly. Sebastian looked at him questioningly and what could've passed for sympathy was written on his face. The boy seemed lost, like a dog without a master, or a son without his parents.

"I'll call you Pedro." He said decidedly. Pedro now looked at him curiously. Sebastian looked down at him with a face that clearly said, "Don't ask."

And he didn't. He actually liked the name.


	3. The Power of Words

**It's Christmas Break so I figured: UPDATE YOUR STORIES ALREADY! So That's what I'm doing...hope I did the twins justice.**

Chapter 3 The Power of Words

"The language we use to communicate with one another is like a knife. In the hands of a careful and skilled surgeon, a knife can work to do great good. But in the hands of a careless or ignorant person, a knife can cause great harm. Exactly as it is with our words."- Unknown

It was a really hot night in June when it happened.

He and Scott had been in the dining room, trying to read A Wrinkle in Time for some book report assignment they had no intention of finishing. Their foster parent, Ed, was sitting in the living room with a half-empty bottle of vodka in his hand. The glare of the television screen reflected in his vacant eyes.

Losing his job had been what caused the change. Caring for two had been hard enough, but with the twins, it got twice as difficult. Now he didn't even remember why he had agreed to take them in the first place.

Leanne couldn't have kids of her own...so foster care was the next best idea. They had seemed nice at first. Jamie and Scott were quiet, but they never caused trouble and did whatever he asked. But the one time he hit Scott, but Jamie had the bruise had terrified him.

The twins weren't sure anymore about moving onto a next family. Their social worker had, in a sense, abandoned them and their current foster parents were at each other's throats at least twice a night...ending with the twins taking most of the verbal abuse.

While reading, Jamie could sense Ed's presence before he had entered the room, but said nothing. A quick message to Scott, who had returned to their room for his book bag, alerted him to the possible danger.

As Ed readied to say something, Scott quickly walked back into the dining room, taking the seat between Jaime and Ed and looked him straight in the eye. The man narrowed his eyes in annoyance.

"You think you're funny, Tyler?" he growled angrily. With a quick twitch of his mouth, Jamie soon replied.

"Which one of us," he answered innocently. "Scott or me?"

Jamie knew he had said too much when he felt his brother's shoulder tense and he shook his head as discreetly as tipped him off even more was when Ed zeroed in on him and smirked.

"Clever," he chuckled darkly. "How close you two are, you could be the same person, right? But not for long, not anymore..."

Jamie watched him closely for signs of lying. Ed always said this when he got out of hand. He _wanted_ to scare them into respecting him, but he always gave himself away-usually by putting his right hand in his pocket.

He didn't do that now.

_Scott..._ he reached out to him softly with his mind, but the message was sent back to him.

His brother had straightened up, realizing that maybe, Ed_ wasn't_ lying this time. "What are you talking about? They said we had to stay together. It' the law-"

"Bull," Ed spat angrily. "What does a eleven year old boy know about the law? Here I am, a hard-working American-"

"Working?" Scott said, his temper getting the better of him. "You haven't had a job in three months. Leanne's been doing three jobs to cover your mess-"

"Shut up," Ed growled, his eyes tinged yellow. "Just wait. We're moving next year-a few districts out. But you'll be staying somewhere here in Carson City, and your dear brother-"

"Shut up!" Scott snarled.

"-is going somewhere else," he said with a finality. "How's it gonna feel, Cotti? Knowing you and your brother are gonna be _miles_ away?"

Scott was seething in his seat, clutching his pen like he wanted to ram it through Ed's stomach. "You always say that and it _never_ happens, Ed. It's because you're full of shi-"

"You watch your mouth around me, brat!" he roared. "That's what I always hated about you two. Never gave me any respect-"

"You never _deserved_ it-"

Ed turned his attention to Jamie with a triumphant grin on his face. "Have fun living without your shadow for the rest of your life."

At that, Jamie knew Ed had struck a nerve and his brother would snap.

Scott seemed to turn to stone and his knuckles were pale in anger.

"_Nobody's going to separate us. You can go hang yourself."_

The weight of the words hit Jamie, but Ed got the worst of it. The man blinked in confusion and his face contorted into horror as if he realized what he was being asked to do. He walked out of the dining room, his feet dragging across the carpet. The vodka bottling slipped out of his hand in slow motion.

This can't be happening, Jamie thought. He wouldn't do this. He wouldn't-Why can't I move?

He realized that he hadn't tried stopping him. He had the power to do it. Scott may have been the tougher of the two but...he was strong, wasn't he?

It was like watching it from a movie screen with no way to prevent it. Ed made his way out of the house, toward the garage. Jamie tried forming words but they left him at once.

_What did you _do_? _He thought to Scott. His brother just sat and stared at the direction Ed had left in. His brother's mind felt blank and empty...foreign, almost.

They sat by the dining table for what felt like hours until Jamie finally got up and went to their bedroom. He buries his head in a pillow to block out all the noise: from the traffic, outside, the tv (had someone turned it off yet?), his brother. Whatever happened, he did not want to be there when Leanne came home. The thought of her seeing him and then the twins...they would be kicked out for sure.

And he was right. She found him with a cord tied to a metal bracket around his neck.

Even afterwards, in the dim room of Don's trailer he repeats what his brother had told him months after it happened.

"_It was an accident, that's all. I didn't know what I was saying and I didn't mean for it to happen. It was just words."_

_1234**5**_

**_Yeah...I was a little surprised, too._**


End file.
